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Pay it Forward: Caregiving Careers
Lisa Reisman • Aug 28, 2019
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Pay it Forward: Caregiving Careers
A survey conducted by the National Opinion Research Center in 2014 found that 83 percent of caregivers viewed it as a being a positive experience. Caring for the elderly population is in high demand. With more jobs opening up in the caregiving field and for the right type of person, taking care of the elderly can be a rewarding career in more ways than one. If caregiving is something you’ve considered in the past, this information could help determine if it’s the right job for you.
Caregiving, like any job, comes with its challenges. Caring for an elderly person can be taxing physically and emotionally. For many people, it doesn’t start out as their dream job. In an article on Caring.com, StoneGate Senior Living Senior Vice President Angela Norris said, “With over 43.5 million people having provided unpaid caregiving within a 12-month period, it is clear this is a responsibility that will fall to many of us at some point in our lives.” For many, it’s a time to reconnect with a parent or grandparent on a deeper level, and give back to a person who has given so much of their time previously taking care of you. The roles have seem to have reversed themselves at a certain point, and being a family caregiver means providing responsibility and guidance for the senior in your life which can expand your emotional understanding of family relationships in a way you may have never been exposed to otherwise.
Surprising Benefits to Caregiving
Lisa Fredman, Ph.D., a professor in the department of epidemiology at Boston University’s School of Public health, conducted research showing that as a group, family caregivers live longer and healthier than their peers. “The scale I was using in my research helped me isolate and separate caregiving from stress. Once I was able to do that, we noticed that the caregivers were having lower rates of mortality than the non-caregivers,” Fredman says. Fredman found that the caregivers in her study walked stronger and had overall had stronger cognitive functioning. Research from the American Physiological Association also found that caregivers report having more positive coping strategies for stressful and emotional situations based on their roles and day-to-day activities.
Many caregivers, as mentioned before, get their start by caring for a senior family member. After experiencing what it’s like giving back to someone who has previously cared for them, feelings of personal growth and having a sense of purpose in someone else’s life are what inspire caregiving as a career. In other cases, family members hire help through in-home services and see firsthand the type of excellent care their loved one is getting and may want to pay it forward to another family in need of that same type of respect. Making a difference in someone else’s life, especially as they near the end of it is a delicate time. Their schedules may be routine and mundane or stressful and packed with medical visits. Depending on the time commitment to your elderly person, a special bond is formed and the difference you’re making in that person’s life by keeping them company and developing trust is the type of companionship they need to ease their discomfort and many times, loneliness. Regardless of what inspires a caregiving career, personal or not, it’s giving back to a generation that has taught us so many valuable life lessons. A deepened sense of purpose in life isn’t guaranteed with all career paths, whereas being a caregiver it’s almost a guarantee.
Additionally, caregiving has the potential to open so many doors for personal growth. It’s a great stepping-stone into the health field and for those in need of flexible scheduling. It can be full-time or part-time depending on the needs and times available of the caregiver while some find that they can balance doing freelance jobs while their senior naps, or reads as well.
How to Become a Caregiver
As our population continues to age, the demand for in-home care keeps increasing, allowing job security with caregiving to be at an all time high. Many care companies are in need of trustworthy, compassionate and talented caregivers to join their team. Becoming a caregiver doesn’t require any medical education, however each organization has their requirements— a background check, drug screening, fingerprinting, and verification of reliable transportation are pretty standard. If you’re ready to be paid for making a difference in someone else’s life, that in return could change yours for the better, consider caregiving as your next career. For more information, please visit our website
to learn more about job opportunities with Complete Care in Atlanta, Georgia.
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